Temporary service station sign was called an ‘eyesore’Temporary service station sign called an ‘eyesore’

A temporary sign that many had regarded as an eyesore at the entrance to Lake Elsinore’s downtown Main Street off Interstate 15 came down last week after several months on display.

The sign, mounted on a tower about 70 feet high and highly visible along the I-15 corridor, consisted of a white plastic bag painted with the word “GAS” in red letters.

With the city’s permission, the owner of a gas station at the junction put up the bag sign temporarily to alert motorists on the freeway that they could still fuel up there, although it was no longer a Union 76 franchise.

Planning Director Warren Morelion said the city allowed the sign as an interim solution until the station owner obtained another brand and put up a new sign to reflect that.

When that plan failed to materialize and the station recently closed, senior planner Richard MacHott said, city officials asked the owner to get rid of the bag and paint the sign white.

The bag was removed and the tower sign painted over in white.

“We just felt that was going to be the least unattractive approach for us, and it gives him a little more flexibility when he reopens the business,” MacHott said.

Some downtown merchants had been pushing the city to bring the sign down.

“I think everybody knew I was a little aggravated,” said Kimberly Ryan, proprietor of the Main Street retail shop Tulips, Trophies and Treasures. “The day that I got off the freeway and saw it, I was talking to city officials and saying something needs to happen here because this is an eyesore.”

She hopes that the station will be reopened with a more attractive sign and an appearance that fits with downtown Main Street’s historical theme.

The station is a few blocks away from the core of downtown, which features several buildings between 80 and 125 years old. Civic leaders, however, hope that the historical motif will be expanded down the corridor.

“I also am very excited, because I think that the gas station is going to move in a positive direction,” said Ryan, a leader in the Lake Elsinore Downtown Merchants Association.

“I believe (the owner’s) going to clean it up and make it look nice. … I really think it would be beautiful if they made it look like a downtown old-fashioned gas station.”

MacHott said representatives of the southwest division of 7-Eleven have expressed interest in locating a franchise there. If that happens, he said, the city would probably insist on a design that would fit in with the downtown theme.